Gary Powers’ Cold War Museum Commemorates, Informs And Haunts

Mention the Cold War to younger folks these days, and you often get a blank stare. Antarctica? The North Pole?

How quickly humanity forgets simple history. I’m not here to reiterate the obvious, but think Berlin Wall, nuclear proliferation, duck and cover, the Cuban missile crisis, the space race to the moon, the satellite Sputnik. These are a few glaring reminders.

When the former Soviet Union surprisingly tore down the Berlin Wall in 1989, many considered the act a signal to the end of the Cold War between America and the Soviets. Gorbachev and Glasnost replaced Khrushchev and aggression.

While America’s relationship with Russia certainly isn’t optimal now, it’s not as dangerous as during the time between the fifties and eighties when nuclear war was a distinct possibility.

Lest we forget any of this, Gary Powers Jr., son of pilot Gary Powers who was shot down in 1960 spying on the Soviets from his U-2 aircraft, has founded a commemorative museum to jog our memories. The Cold War Museum has gone through various iterations since its inception in 1996, including a traveling mobile set-up, but is now situated permanently near Warrenton, Virginia.

This past weekend I visited the museum and was given a guided tour by none other than Powers himself. I was both shocked and impressed by the vast collection of memorabilia. Powers estimates the Cold War stuff is worth millions of dollars. But you wouldn’t know it from the nondescript outside of the barracks building that houses the artifacts.

On display are pieces of the Berlin Wall (replete with colorful graffiti), uniforms of Soviet soldiers and officers as they evolved over the years, crude radio equipment used for spying/decoding, and, of course, exhibits featuring the U-2 spy plane, past to present.

The iconic aircraft began spying over Russia in the late fifties, and, amazingly, is still in operation today. Both Powers and myself have taken high flights in the back of the aircraft, Powers in 2000 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his father’s 70,500-foot shoot-down, me this past summer (link at end of this story). I can tell you, it’s still got the stuff.

Featured in the U-2 exhibits are suits that the pilots wore early-on in the program, primitive compared to the bulky yellow ones worn today. The suits protect pilots against dangers in the near-vacuum at the edge of space where they fly. An actual piece of a U-2 shot down over Cuba in 1962, piloted by USAF Major Rudolph Anderson Jr., is featured as well.

The retired USAF SR-71 also has a display. The aircraft averaged 1,917 mph in a record time of one hour, 55 minutes from New York to London. The plane’s retired Soviet counterpart, the MiG-25, has its own exhibit, too, albeit much smaller.

There’s way too much in the museum to detail here. But history buffs visiting the Northern Virginia area might want to check it out. It is located about a half-an-hour’s drive from Fairfax. On sale are challenge coins, sweatshirts, Cold War books and the like. Proceeds help fund the not-for-profit.